


Just Us

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Foxtrot [122]
Category: Dollhouse, First Monday, Sisters (1991 TV), Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Crossover, F/M, M/M, not actually RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 04:05:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7298890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, a love that lasts."</p><p>The solution to John's ailing mind. Set post-series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Us

"You think he'd be okay with this?" Rodney stared down at John's unconscious form.

"I think he would be," Joe said quietly.

Even though John and Rodney had been close for over half of their lives, had been lovers for the last four decades, there were some things about John that Rodney could never know like Joe did.

Evan curled a hand around Joe's wrist. "Are you sure you don't want to do it too?"

Joe nodded and leaned in, kissed Evan softly, stroked a hand over his white hair. "I'm sure. You and I have had a good life, a full life. When the time comes, it comes."

"John and I have had good lives," Rodney protested. "Full lives. But -"

"But this is your second chance. And this is their second chance, too." Joe gazed down at John fondly.

"Was it frightening?" Rodney asked.

"Terrifying," Joe said. "That crippling loneliness. Not having someone to turn to for everything. And then I had Evan to turn to. He'll be fine, because he'll have you."

The medical bay was silent, save for the beeping machines.

"For the record," Topher said, "I'm only doing this once.”

Rodney nodded. "Do it."

"Okay." And Topher hunched over his datapad, typing rapidly.

The first stasis chamber hissed open, and all of them gazed at the woman lying there. She had sleek dark hair and high cheekbones and familiar pointy ears, but she was more slender, had lovely curves.

Topher pressed another button, and blue light flared around her head, giving her the briefest halo.

She opened her eyes.

"Hey, what's going on?" Her eyes went wide. She pressed a hand to her throat. "Rodney? What's wrong with me?"

Rodney smiled at her. "Hey, Traci."

Evan held out a small hand-mirror. She accepted it with shaking hands, stared at herself.

"What - what is this? Is this me? Where's John?"

"This is you now, Traci," Topher said. "John is sleeping. We'll wake him up when we're done with everyone else."

Joe offered her a hand, helped her step out of the pod. She turned and stared at the other pod, which contained a sleeping clone, this one male.

"Everyone else?" Traci pressed her hands to her head. "They're gone!"

"From you, yes," Rodney said.

Traci ran her hands over her new body. "Oh. _Oh._ "

“This is your chance,” Joe said, “to live your own life. Happy birthday, Traci.”

She began to cry. Rodney and the others stood back, let Joe pull her into a hug and comfort her. When her sobs finally subsided, she pulled back from Joe, wiped the tears from her face.

“What do I do now? Where do I go?”

“You’re welcome to stay on Atlantis,” Evan said. “Ronon and Teyla have arranged it. All of you will have places here until you figure out what you want to do. The universe is your oyster.”

“Universe?” Traci asked. “Could I go back to Earth?”

“If you wanted,” Joe said. “After all, you have personhood status.”

 

Traci bit her lip. “I’ve been teaching dance lessons here. I think I might want to stay. Till something better comes along.” She smoothed down the pale blue satin of her dress. “Oh. It’s so soft. I only ever got to wear a dress once for - for the man who, um, hired me.” She hugged herself and twirled around, and she looked so overjoyed that Rodney knew they’d made the right decision. She leaned up on her toes and kissed Rodney on the nose. Then she patted Topher’s shoulder and said, “Do it.”

Topher typed rapidly, and the pod she’d been in closed, filled with liquid. The other pod hissed open with a familiar flare of blue light, and the man came awake with a gasp.

“What happened? Is John all right? I can’t feel John. John!”

Traci went to his side immediately. “It’s okay, Brian. John’s fine. He’s just sleeping.”

Brian blinked at her. “...Traci?”

She nodded, beaming, and he reached up, smoothed a hand over his face. Traci handed him the little hand mirror, and he stared at himself for a long moment.

“Is this what I think it is?” he asked.

“Your very own body.”

Brian lifted his gaze to her, looked at her for a long, long moment. And then he stepped in and kissed her.

“O-kay. Didn’t see that one coming.” Topher ducked his head and typed rapidly. “It’s going to be a long time, guys. Growing each clone takes -”

“We’ll stay with you,” Rodney said firmly. “To the end.”

At the end of it, each former imprint was standing around John’s bed, hands joined, watching as Topher shut down the machines keeping him alive. Rodney, jittery in his new body, didn’t dare look at the old one, lying still on the other bed, a sheet pulled up over its head. Evan held one of his hands, and Joe held the other, and he squeezed them both tightly when Topher typed in the awakening sequence for the final time, and the pod hissed open.

“Wait,” Rodney said.

Topher lifted his hands away from the datapad. Rodney reached out, slid the black wristband off of old John’s wrist, revealing the famous tattoo, and slid it onto new John’s wrist.

“Hit it.”

Topher tapped away, blue light flared, and John blinked a few times, rubbed his eyes. He yawned.

“Rodney? What’s going on?”

John opened his eyes fully and stared.

“Hi, John,” Traci said.

“What the hell did I drink last night?”

“No drinking involved,” Julian said. “None at all.”

John fixed his gaze on Rodney. “Is that - how old _are_ you?”

“Biologically? Twenty.” Rodney smirked.

John scanned the former imprints’ faces. “And am I -?”

Rodney nodded.

“But Joe and Evan -”

“Are happy as we are, thanks,” Joe said.

John took a deep breath. “What does this mean?”

“This means,” Rodney said, “that I love you, John Sheppard, and we can do whatever we want with our lives. No Dollhouse. No Wraith. Just us.”

John swallowed hard. Then he nodded, stood up, and pulled Rodney in for a kiss.


End file.
